January 8, 2019

Revisiting Montana 1889: A Book Group

Join
“Revisiting Montana 1889: A Book Group” Facebook Group during 2019

Join us in celebrating the 130th anniversary of Montana's statehood, and become a member of the Revisiting
Montana 1889: A Book Group on Facebook throughout 2019. The Montana Historical Society will host this monthly conversation based on Ken Egan’s Montana
1889: Indians, Cowboys, and Miners in the Year of Statehood. Montana is a
small town with long streets and we can have a lively exchange of views through
social media.

We
will revisit important figures out of Montana’s past such as Little Wolf,
Granville Stuart, Nannie Alderson, Louis Riel, Mary Gleim, Deaf Bull, and
Charlo. We will consider changes to the land and peoples that led up to and
followed from Montana statehood.

Starting
in January, and continuing each month throughout 2019 following the chapters of
his book, Ken Egan, the author, will post prompting questions (such as the ones
below) to the group and respond to readers’ comments.

Montana’s original
Constitution was approved by voters on Oct. 1, 1889

To begin our journey through 1889, Ken will host an
on-site presentation to introduce himself, his book and the Facebook reading
club. The event will be held in the
auditorium at the Montana Historical Society on January 15, 2019, 3:30-5:00
p.m. We will have livestreaming of it on YouTube and on Facebook Live, in case you
are unable to attend the presentation on-site.

Going along on this journey will be MHS Photo Archives
Manager Jeff Malcomson as our public-historian-in-residence. He’ll be suggesting
further reading in related areas of Montana and Western history and helping to
answer any history-related questions readers may have.

No
need to read anything in preparation for this first kick-off presentation;
however, if you want to get a jump-start on the reading club, below are some
questions to inspire you to consider the overall book. We will discuss these thought-provoking
questions one week after the January 15th presentation.

Getting
to Know the Book

a.Scan
the layout and contents of the book. Why would the writer organize the stories
by month? Do you find that format appealing? What are the possible pros and
cons of this approach?

b.Sample
a few of the epigraphs (quotations) at the start of each month. Where do those
excerpts come from? Why has the writer included those passages? (Note that in
his previous book, Montana 1864, Egan
used excerpts from the Blackfeet calendar to lead each chapter.)

c.How
do the photographs contribute to (or detract from) the stories?

d.Scan
the reference list (bibliography) at the end of book—do any titles call to you?

The January 15th presentation will be
filmed on YouTube and Facebook Live and will be available for viewing during the
entire year and beyond. The Tuesday following the presentation, on January 22, our
Facebook Group will have a Watch Party in our Facebook Group from 1:30 to 2:30 pm to view and react to the presentation. It will be our first official virtual
meeting and will give us a chance to get to know one another and begin
discussing the book’s themes, figures, events and Ken’s questions in more
depth.

Once you are a member of the Group, we will keep you
posted about the meetings that will be held throughout the year. We plan to
have one each in March, June, September and a wrap-up in December. During each
meeting, we hope to include guests who will expound on certain topics in their
areas of expertise.

Anaconda's Montana Hotel, built by Marcus Daly with the hope that
our State's seat of government would be in Anaconda.

To explore the chapter topics in more depth, Ken, our
host for the entire year, will suggest additional readings, as will Jeff Malcomson. And, please share with us any ideas you may have for further readings!